Family Relations

The life of children is highly influenced by the fact that their parent is in prison and by the circumstances of the imprisonment, starting from the arrest, followed by sentencing and execution of the sentence. An estimated 800,000 children in the EU are separated from an imprisoned parent each year. The prison service should not take alone responsibility for providing opportunities for valuable contact between children and their imprisoned parent. A good cooperation of the prison service with the social network of the parents and social support organisations inside and outside of a prison are crucial for success. Family relations are also about the contact between partners that have been separated as a result of the imprisonment of one of them.